Match evenly poised

There was a serious application error at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. Batsmen crashed in a heap, 15 of them to be precise, and panic buttons were being furiously punched in both dressing rooms. Thanks to some reckless cricket, the five-day Mumbai and Punjab Ranji Trophy semifinal is in danger of finishing in three days.

The seeds of bad batting which were sowed on the opening day grew into demonic proportions today as Punjab first folded for a miserly 126. In return, Mumbai armed with a 125-run lead, made a mockery of their dominance by losing 8 wickets for 82 runs. It was only in the last hour of the day that there was a semblance of defiance when tailender Nilesh Kulkarni batting 7 and southpaw Nishit Shetty batting 33 raised 30 runs. Mumbai, thus managed to gain an overall lead of 237 runs and a decisive edge.

Brief scores:

Mumbai

251 and 112/8 N Shetty batting 33; Gagandeep 38/4, R Sharma 29/3 vs Punjab 126 P Dharmani 32, Kulkarni 18/3, Bahutule 20/4.